Immaculate Reception turns 40; debate lives

Dec. 18, 2012
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Franco Harris (32) of the Pittsburgh Steelers eludes tackle by Jimmy Warren of the Oakland Raiders on a 42-yard run to score the winning touchdown in the American Conference playoff game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Dec. 23, 1972. Harris' "Immaculate Reception" came when a desperation pass to a teammate bounced off a Raiders defender. The touchdown gave Pittsburgh a 13-7 lead with five second left in the game. / HARRY CABLUCK, AP

by Gary Mihoces, USA TODAY Sports

by Gary Mihoces, USA TODAY Sports

Upon further review (40 years of it), the play stands as called. And the debate goes on about the Immaculate Reception.

Had it occurred in this age of instant replay officiating with all the extra cameras, high-definition and super-slow motion, maybe we'd know beyond a shadow of a doubt whether Franco Harris' touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers was legit.

But even former NFL official Mike Pereira, who dissects officiating calls for Fox Sports, can appreciate the lingering appeal of the unsolved mystery that ricocheted into NFL history Dec. 23, 1972, and will mark its 40th anniversary Sunday.

Did the ball bounce off Oakland Raiders safety Jack Tatum and shoot back? Or was it Steelers running back John "Frenchy" Fuqua who deflected Terry Bradshaw's pass to Harris (an illegal "double touch" back then)? Did the ball nick the turf as Harris caught it en route to a 60-yard touchdown that beat the Raiders 13-7 in an AFC divisional playoff game?

"It's part of the charm of the game, the charm of the play," says Pereira, former NFL vice president of officiating. "It's to the point now where everybody is driving to make every solitary part of the game perfect. I don't think the game was designed to be that way."

Had it all been settled in 1972, NFL Network wouldn't be airing a documentary about it at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, part of its A Football Life series.

"What makes the play great is the mystery of it," says Neil Zender, the show's producer. He says that allows for personal interpretation: "The Raiders can see it as a crime, and the Steelers can see it as the hand of God."

And Art McNally, 87, the former NFL supervisor of officials who was in the press box that day in Pittsburgh, wouldn't still be answering questions about what went on when referee Fred Swearingen phoned him from the field before signaling touchdown after a roughly 15-minute delay.

McNally says the touchdown was called on the field, that he agreed with it, didn't give Swearingen help and didn't look at replays before talking with Swearingen. Replay wasn't a part of NFL officiating then.

But McNally, who pioneered instant-replay officiating in the NFL, acknowledges we'll never know what a modern replay might have shown.

"I've seen too many of these things that you think for sure this is what it is, and somewhere, somehow there is a camera angle that says 'uh-oh,'" McNally says.

The Steelers trailed 7-6 with 22 seconds left, facing fourth-and-10 at their 40-yard line. The play was called 66 Circle Option. The primary receiver on the play was rookie Barry Pearson, playing in his first game. After a scramble, Bradshaw threw down the middle to Fuqua at the Raiders 35 yard-line.

The rule then - which was removed in 1978 - was that if one offensive receiver was the first player to tip a pass, it couldn't legally be touched next and caught by another offensive player.

NFL Films rounded up all the visual evidence it could find, including its shots from up high at midfield and the Steelers end zone. NBC's full telecast of the game was lost. But the NBC shots of the play from high-midfield and from above and behind the play survived.

Tatum, who died in 2010, always said he never touched the ball. Former Raiders defensive back George Atkinson, who calls the play the Immaculate Deception, seconds that. "Jack Tatum hit (Fuqua) from behind into the ball," he tells NFL Films.

NBC's end-zone shot shows the ball closing in on Tatum's right shoulder. In slow motion, it looks like Tatum touches the ball. But it's blurry, and the collision between Tatum and Fuqua is partially obscured by one upright of the goal post.

McNally notes a fine point to the rule at that time: "If a defensive player touches (the ball) before, at the same time or after the Pittsburgh player touched the ball, now it's going to be a legal catch."

Pereira: "I would imagine if you took today's technology ... you could tell pretty clearly who touched it first and if there were two offensive players that touched it in a row. You have cameras now that show you when a guy's hair touches out of bounds."

Harris grabbed the ball at full gallop with no hesitation. However, replays do not show the bottom part of the ball in the frame.

"He caught it I'd say calf-high on the left side of his body," McNally says.

Pereira says modern replay would have verified that: "You'd get the whole situation of 'Did he actually catch the ball?' Nothing that you really see from any of the shots that we have."

Former Raiders linebacker Phil Villapiano says Harris made a great catch.

Yet Bradshaw and Harris feed the mystery. "More than likely, he probably trapped it," Bradshaw says with a laugh in the documentary.

What is Harris' take on whether it hit the ground?

"I can't say," he says with a shrug.

Zender says, "The Steelers players are more into the conspiracy theories than anybody is. ... They recognize what makes the play great is the mystery of it."

On the show, Gen. Michael Hayden, former CIA director and Pittsburgh native, says some people are too conspiratorial and that in his "professional judgment," the play happened as called.

The NFL Films documentary covers the origin of the name Immaculate Reception (it started with a fan toast at a bar after the game). Don't expect Fuqua to reveal the secret he has professed to keep about what happened when he and Tatum collided. He basks in keeping the debate alive.

The comments from former Raiders coach John Madden are file footage. The narrator reveals that Madden is still so upset about the play he declined an interview.

On Saturday, a monument to the play will be unveiled on the spot where it occurred at since-razed Three Rivers Stadium.

Meanwhile, Pereira says even modern replay might still not solve the mystery: "There are plays where you can't tell. That's why they say, 'The ruling on the field stands.'"